Atoms and Radioactivity

Physics Achievement Standard 2.5 Describe aspects of Atoms and Radioactivity 2 Credits

The Early Years.

5th

century BC the idea of atoms was first conceived by Democritus. His main ideas:
All matter is made of atoms. Atoms are indivisible. Changes in matter are because of changes to the way atoms are arranged. There are many different kinds of atoms, which relate to different properties of matter All forces are a result of collisions between atoms.

The Early Years continued

Most prominent scientists supported the theory of atoms Hooke and Newton are two that you know about. This was quite controversial, as there was not a shred of experimental evidence to support it. John Dalton was the next major breakthrough in 1808. His ideas:

All matter is made of a large number of extremely small atoms. All the atoms of an element are identical. Different elements are made of different atoms. Chemical reactions are a change in the arrangement of atoms. When a compound is formed, the compound atom is made from a fixed number of different element atoms.

Dalton was almost right. His main problem was that he didnt allow the possibility for there to be two identical elements in a compound. This meant he incorrectly calculated atomic weights. More of a problem came when electricity was discovered this meant two significant things:

Electric forces were somehow connected with atoms There may be something smaller than an atom?

The Thomson Model

In 1897 J. J Thomson discovered electrons very small negatively charged particles. He suggested that these must be a part of every atom. Lord Kelvin suggested that atoms were kind of like a plum pudding:

They are spherical blobs with electrons randomly scattered throughout them. They must have some positive charge somewhere because overall they are neutral the sphere itself must be positive.

Even though Kelvin suggested this model, it is called the Thomson model because he supported it with such vigour. It is also sometimes called the Plum Pudding model.

Rutherfords Experiment.
This experiment was one of the most important experiments of the century. It made physicists completely rethink their model of atoms.

The radioactive source emits alpha particles which are relatively massive and positively charged. The important result was that a small number of alpha particles were largely deflected. Its the equivalent of throwing an elephant at a tissue paper and having it bounce back at you. Rutherford.

What does this mean?

Rutherfords experiment gave rise to a new model of the structure of the atom. The experimental results meant that there must be something inside the atom that was:

1. Very massive. (Massive enough to deflect an alpha particle) 2. Positively charged. (Otherwise it would have attracted the alpha particle, not repelled it) 3. Very small. (Most alpha particles were not deflected, so most of the inside of the atom must be empty space!)

Rutherfords Model.
Rutherford proposed that the atom has a small concentrated area of mass and positive charge, which he called the nucleus. He suggested that the negatively charged electrons orbit this nucleus like planets orbit the sun. This model is counter-intuitive for a number of reasons, but it is actually very close to the standard accepted model that we have today.

Rutherfords Model Cont.

There are a number of problems with Rutherfords atomic model:

The spectra of atoms. Each atom is capable of emitting electromagnetic radiation of certain frequencies only. Different atoms emit different frequencies. This model of the atom does not explain why only some frequencies and not others are allowed. The stability of electronic orbits. It is known that accelerating charges radiate energy. The orbiting electrons are accelerating (towards the nucleus, since they exhibit circular motion). So they should be radiating energy. This loss of energy would cause them to spiral inwards and hit the nucleus almost immediately. Clearly this doesnt happen.

The next advance in atomic theory came from a Danish physicist, Neils Bohr in 1913. His ideas, the start of quantum theory, are covered in NCEA Level 3 Physics.

The Is have it

Isotopes are atoms which have more than the regular number of neutrons. Ionisation is when atoms gain or lose electrons.

More discoveries by Rutherford...

Rutherford noticed that the charge in the nucleus was equal to the atomic number of the element. However, he found a significant difference when he considered the momentum changes this was when he suggested a neutral particle no charge but mass almost equal to a proton. The existence of the neutron was confirmed by experiment 12 year later.

Some problems with Rutherfords Model.

Even though Rutherford had made a huge breakthrough, he knew his work wasnt finished. There we a number of properties of atoms that his model didnt explain:
1. Atoms emit specific spectral lines of light. Rutherfords model doesnt tell us why this would happen. The orbiting electrons are accelerating (towards the centre). It turns out that accelerating charges emit energy and therefore must reduce the radius of their orbit. But then they would spiral towards the centre, and every atom would implode. This doesnt happen so there must be something else keeping the electrons orbit stable.

2.

Nuclear Reactions:

Nuclear Fission:

Nuclear fission is the splitting of a large or heavy (parent) nucleus into two roughly equal, smaller (daughter) nuclei. Fission occurs spontaneously or it may be caused by a neutron colliding with the nucleus. Fission releases a few neutrons also, and these neutrons may collide with other nuclei, causing further fission and liberating more neutrons. In this way, a chain reaction may result. If the mass of the material is below a certain value (known as the critical mass), too many of the neutrons will escape before causing further fission. An example of a nuclear fission equation:

Nuclear fusion.

Nuclear Fusion is a nuclear reaction that combines to smaller nuclei to create a larger nucleus, and releases a huge amount of energy. The stars are powered by fusion. Extremely high temperatures are required to initiate fusion reactions, so its not easy to make a fusion power plant. Current ideas include magnetic fields to contain the whole thing. Cold fusion is a theoretical idea in that it may be possible to get fusion to happen at relatively low temperatures. No one has yet figured it out. Let me know if you manage to . A typical fusion reaction looks like this:

Inside a fusion reactor

Radioactive Decay

Alpha Decay
In alpha decay, the parent nucleus ejects an alpha, , particle. An alpha particle is a helium nucleus. 212 208 4 Po 82 Pb + 2 84 212 208 4 or: Po 82 Pb + 2 He 84 Alpha particles are positively charged. When one travels through matter, it will attract and remove some electrons from atoms along its path. These atoms therefore become ions. This process is called ionisation. Because alpha particles move relatively slowly, they can remove many electrons in a short distance. Thus they ionise strongly and lose energy rapidly. Because of this rapid loss of energy, alpha particles have a very limited range in air (about 8 cm maximum) and are easily stopped by a sheet of paper.

Beta Decay In beta decay, the parent nucleus ejects a beta, , particle. A beta particle is an electron or a positron (a positive electron).
Or:

The above decay produces an electron, not a positron. It is important to realise that this electron comes from the nucleus. It is not one of the orbiting electrons. The electron may be regarded as coming from neutron decay within the nucleus: Beta particles are ejected with speeds approaching the speed of light. They ionise less and travel further than alpha particles. Even so, they are stopped by a sheet of metal a few millimetres thick. They can travel about one metre in air. There is no great danger unless the source is inside the body. Beta particles typically travel about 1 cm through biological tissue before stopping.
1 0n

14 6C 14 6C

0 14 7N + 1 0 14 7N + 1

0 1

0 + +1p

Gamma Decay A.K.A. Gamma Emission

In gamma emission (symbol, ), the nucleus emits electromagnetic radiation of very high frequency (higher than X-rays). This emission usually follows another decay which has left the daughter nucleus in an excited state (denoted by the *). In returning to the ground state, the nucleus emits gamma radiation.

Gamma decay in itself produces no new element or isotope. This is because there is no particle emitted from the nucleus, just energy. Gamma rays cause very little ionisation. This means that they dont lose their energy easily. They are therefore particularly penetrating. They can travel through 30 cm of steel. Along with other forms of high-frequency electromagnetic radiation, they can cause cancer (UV radiation is less penetrating and so produces skin cancer). There is a long time interval between exposure to the radiation and the appearance of cancer from 10 to about 40 years is usual.

Magnetic fields and danger!

A magnetic field can be used to distinguish alpha, beta and gamma emissions.
Gamma emissions, being uncharged, will be undeflected by a magnetic field. Positive alpha particles moving through a magnetic field will be deflected in one direction Negative beta particles will be deflected in the opposite direction.

Radioactive material is dangerous because of its ability to remove electrons from the molecules in your body. Any form of ionisation can break up molecules into highly reactive pieces. When this occurs in a cell nucleus, these reactive fragments can damage a DNA molecule, producing cancer or genetic defects. At extreme levels it interferes with cell division. Death follows in a few hours.

Laws for Nuclear Reactions

There are 4 laws that govern every nuclear reaction: 1. Charge is conserved. This means that the bottom numbers on each side of the equals sign of the equations must be equal. 2. The number of protons and neutrons is conserved. This means the top numbers on each side must be equal. 3. Momentum is conserved. (This is how they find new particles in the LHC) 4. Mass is not conserved. Mass may be converted into energy through Einstein's equation: E = mc2

Half Life
It is quite difficult to predict the time it will take for a radioactive particle to decay. This is because each atom decays randomly and spontaneously. We instead use a concept called the half life of a element. The half life is the time it takes for half of the atoms to decay. This is a statistical measure and it is the same for every collection of element atoms. It relies on the idea that each atom has the same chance of decaying within a certain time, and so the half life for a large number of atoms is always the same.

Calculating Half Life

The half life is calculated by establishing the time it takes for half of the element to spontaneously decay. Every half life time (1 ) that elapses, another half of the element decays. This means that after 2 half times, only of the element remains. After 5 half times: 1 Remaining amount = 1 21 32 2 The general formula is after n half times 1 1 of the element remains. 2 2
5 5

More calculations
If we know how much of an element we started with, and how long it took to reduce to another amount, we can calculate the half life. We use logarithms to do this. 1 =
2 log 1 log 2

(Memorise this equation!!!)

E.g. There are 4000 atoms of Cesium, which decay to leave only 360 atoms in 4 seconds. Calculate the half life of Cesium.

E.g. 2 Radium-221 has a half life of 30 seconds. Darlene is given 1 kg for her lab experiment. Her lab partner turns up 4 minutes late. How much of the Radium is left? Sometimes the half life is represented on a graph. What will the shape of this graph be? It is called an exponential decay curve.

Applications

The Geiger-Muller tube

Our bodies cannot sense even lethal highintensity doses of radiation. The Geiger counter provides a common way of detecting and counting radiation.

The window is so thin that even alpha particles can travel through it. Radiation entering the tube causes ionisation of the gas inside. This allows a very brief current flow, which the counter records.

Smoke alarms
Ionisation smoke detectors use an ionisation chamber and a source of ionising radiation to detect smoke. Inside the detector is a small amount of the radioactive isotope americium-241, which is an alpha emitter with a half-life of 432 years. The alpha particles ionise the gases in the air between two charged metal plates. When smoke enters the ionisation chamber, it disrupts this current the smoke particles attach to the ions and neutralise them. The smoke detector senses the drop in current between the plates and sets off the alarm.